<p>Hi Tetra. I was editing my most recent post, and timed out. Here it is–somewhat darker in tone than the draft.</p>
<p>Tetra, I’m glad to learn that Reed has changed so much for the better. Free food? A tutoring center? When I was there, beer was free, during the socials in Commons, but food was limited, and not very good. Free food would have attracted the sizeable proportion of Reedies who lived off campus, without board contracts. Back when there were more students than dorm spaces–the Cross-Canyon dorms (Sisson, Chittick, etc.) were the newest dorms–sophomores were generally obliged to live off campus, while many others did so to save money, or for other reasons. Trying to keep a stock of free food publicly available would have been as ongoing and difficult a task as trying to keep the water out of a pit dug in the sand next to the ocean. (Does Peoples’ Food Store still exist? Off-campus Reedies got their yogurt, granola, brown rice, bread and cheese there.) Back then, Reed increased its tuition-based revenues by admitting students who could pay tuition (though not necessarily room/board fees), without regard for the limits of its ability to house the total student population. In the process, it admitted quite a few people who were less than optimal candidates, I think. Many of them didn’t graduate. (Or maybe they were done in not by academic demands but by the overwhelming drudgery of walking or riding a bicycle to and from campus in the rain, especially at night, and being impoverished.) Reed’s current solution to revenue problem–preferential admission for those who can pay full price–resembles what it has been doing for a long time. The price is now higher, as it includes on-campus living, but the decision to admit is now, as then, made with the financial survival of the college in mind. Does this influence the current four-year graduation rate? I don’t know, but it is an influence constant over time.</p>